The podcast is back and the first episode of 2021 has an in-depth and wide-ranging interview with Widnes Vikings chief executive Phil Finney. We cover a host of topics, including the club's decision to disband the academy, the current financial situation, the coaching change over the close season and plenty more.
As this is a lengthy episode, show notes with timings will appear here shortly.
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Really informative listen.
Some interesting views on the club and RL in general.
Looking forward to the Kevin Brown episode.
Really interesting but don’t agree about his point regarding not been able to develop “top Players” when they can only train part time.
So many players of yesteryear are for more technically gifted than today’s generation and they only trained twice a week.
Very good interview and clears up a lot of things: particularly regarding the Academy.
Seems to me that the game is heading for a player production crisis based on what PF was saying if the focus is going to be on these so called 'elite' players only.
I think the point with Part Time and player development is that if all the teams across the leagues were Part Time then you could develop top players at Widnes, but if you have got the choice between that and full time at say Wigan, you are going to Wigan every day of the week.
Really interesting but don’t agree about his point regarding not been able to develop “top Players” when they can only train part time.
So many players of yesteryear are for more technically gifted than today’s generation and they only trained twice a week.
Which is fine if everyone took the same stance - but ultimately, Widnes aren't going to be able to produce part-time players that can compete with Wigan's full-time players the way the game is currently played.
Really interesting but don’t agree about his point regarding not been able to develop “top Players” when they can only train part time. So many players of yesteryear are for more technically gifted than today’s generation and they only trained twice a week.
Which is fine if everyone took the same stance – but ultimately, Widnes aren’t going to be able to produce part-time players that can compete with Wigan’s full-time players the way the game is currently played.
I believe there is a small and niche market for 16 year olds, who suddenly show tremendous potential late, too late for the other clubs to consider them. I know these are rare examples but should be the way to go IMO.
Regardless, such an honest, passionate and insightful interview, simply cannot fathom anyone who doesn’t like PF, yes, mistakes have been made but he has Widnes in his blood.
If you cast your mind back it was Wigan and their contracts that put them at an advantage over the rest. It is hard to see the wealthy clubs giving up their place tbh. Some Championship clubs will struggle too if they lose the SL slice.
I would happily watch Widnes in a PT Championship. We were plundered regularly for our best players for years but we were still a name to be reckoned with. Our present crewe of late developers might surprise a few (or disappoint), but that's the game atm.
One point that shouldn't be missed is that the contraction of the SL clubs to less than twelve UK clubs doesn't hold out much of a vision of a healthy game, more like a game in decline and looking to so called expansion to add something 'new'.
How about relegating the bottom two and promoting the top two Championship sides each year? They profess to like the 'million pound game' creating tension!
Quite shocked to hear we only have 150 season ticket holders of primary school age.
Great and informative interview, no flannel! The game is being badly mismanaged by greedy clubs and CEO's.
We all need to become recruiting agents!
Quite shocked to hear we only have 150 season ticket holders of primary school age.
It would be interesting to compare that proportion (what about 1 in every 13 Season Ticket Holders?) to the proportion of Season Ticket Holders Over 70.
But I guess you want to time when kids go to their first match so they get into it and don't watch rubbish and get put off for life......speaking personally looking back I guess I got taken to my first matches later than I otherwise would have been to avoid the Runcorn era....
Slight swerve, but does anyone know the date of the game when Lawton ran from the halfway line to score? I thought that it was against Salford but can't find the DVD.
Think it was Hull KR, towards the end of the season 2013: late August/Early September IIRC.
Think it was Hull KR, towards the end of the season 2013: late August/Early September IIRC.
Spot on, thanks! Got it ! Last game of season, Ben Cross etc.thinking of the 'local' tag, some of our lads must have known each other as players for 20 yrs, including schools rugby etc.